1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a holder and/or retractor, particularly a retractor for use in the medical field for holding or keeping parts of a patient""s body separated to facilitate a treatment of the body, and more particularly, the retractor is for retracting flaps in surgery and, even more particularly, for surgery in odontology or oral implantology.
While specific references will be made in the present application to oral surgery and implantology, it must be clear that the retractor of the invention may be widely applied to a number of activities such as general surgery in the medical field, general manual works in several fields like carpentry, hobbies, etc. When the term retractor is used in this application reference is made to the use of the inventive holder to bring the involved parts to a separate fashion and when the term holder is used it means that the holder may be used for retracting parts or keeping parts closed together under a pressure from the resiliency of the holder.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known in any surgical operation that some parts of the patient""s body must be kept separated to have sufficient access to the areas under operation. It is well know to provide holders, retractors or separators, as they are well known in the art, to guarantee that the flaps at both sides of the incision remain separated and spaced apart from each other to permit an adequate exposure of the internal organs, bone, etc.
In oral implantology, for instance, incisions must be made on the crest of the ridge. Then, a flap reflection is made with a sharp periosteal elevator to expose enough bone area for the osteotomy and retraction of the flaps must also be made to start with the perforations in the bone for receiving the implants. The flap retraction is carried out by retractor devices which must be manually held by an assistant during operations carried out by the implantologist. Due to the very small room available at the mouth of the patient, the several works involved in the operation until obtaining a proper positioning of the implant become very uncomfortable not only for the implantologist and the assistant but also to the patient.
The above mentioned retractors of the prior art generally comprise large devices with handles that must be retained by the hand of the odontologist and/or the assistant outside the mouth of the patient. One type of retractor comprises a fork-like device having an elongated handle with a shank terminating in one or more prongs used for holding the flaps spaced apart at both sides of an incision. The operation is performed with the implantologist at one side of the patient, handling all the surgery instruments, and the assistant at the opposite side of the patient holding not only the retractors but also handling several other implements like the saliva and blood suckers. When a surgical operation is extended for a long time, the assistant feels his/her arms very tired and becomes tired and unable to hold the retractors in a proper fashion which causes the implantologist to interrupt the operations, with the risk for the patient and the further extension of time in the operation.
Another type of separator or retractor comprises a scissors-like device comprising two retracting arms connected to respective handles that are movable one towards the other and connected to each other at a central pivot connection in a manner that when the handles are moved in a closing fashion the arms move outwardly in an opening fashion, that is one far away from the other. To hold flaps separated the arms are provided at distal ends thereof with one or more prongs. With the arms closed, that is one engaged to the other, the prongs are inserted in the incision between the flaps and the handles are moved in a closing fashion to cause the arms to open. Locking means are provided in the handles to lock the device with the arms in the open position to hold the flaps separated and spaced apart from each other. It is well apparent to any person skilled in the art that all these operations and maneuvers carried out by two persons in the mouth of a patient is not an easy task but a complex and cumbersome handling.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,450,419 to Heidbrink discloses a dental device for spreading tissues, the device comprising two arms of a wire coiled at its middle to form a spring portion at the rear of the device so that the two arms are resiliently urged outwardly in opposite directions, with the ends of the arms terminating in respective sharpened points to be inserted into the tissue at opposite sides of an incision. As it is better shown in FIG. 2 of the patent, the device is bulky and difficult to be accommodated into the patient""s mouth, particularly when the incision must be made between two dental pieces that are closed to each other without enough room existing to make the incision and place the retractor. In addition, the sharpened points tend to pass entirely through the tissue and even cut the tissue as long as there is no means, such as a back plate, to prevent the pins from excessively entering and passing through the tissue.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,238,563 to Jacques discloses an embalming instrument comprising a pair of metallic bowed arms normally tending to spring apart and away from each other at the free ends, with a coil portion formed in substantially the same plane as the arms. The free ends of the arms include plates secured thereto forming incision engaging means and including piercing members sharpened at their outer ends and forming needle points for piercing the tissue and keeping it open over the incision. While the plates tend to prevent the needle points from excessively running through the tissue, thus preventing the tearing of same. The provision of only one needle point at each side of the incision does not prevent the pivoting of the retractor around the piercing points with the subsequent uprising movement of the retractor forming an obstacle on the incision area.
It would be therefore convenient to have a retractor that may be easily handled to place it between the flaps of an incision with a hand only and that is capable of holding the flaps spaced apart from each other in a stable condition without the help of any assistant, and with the retractor firmly retained in the tissue without moving or uprising after the placing thereof in the incision.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a retractor for holding parts, portions or components of a body, structure or assembly, spaced apart during operations carried out on the body, structure or assembly, the retractor comprising a body having a resilient hinge portion at a vertex of the body and at least two arms outwardly extending from the hinge portion, each arm having a distal portion including anchoring means.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a retractor or holder for holding body parts of a patient separated from each other or engaged together during treating operations carried out on the patient for medical purposes, the retractor comprising at least a body made of wire and having a resilient hinge portion and at least two arms outwardly extending from the hinge portion, each arm comprising: a distal arm portion, a proximal arm portion having at least a portion thereof extending angularly to the distal arm portion, first anchoring means provided at a distal end of the distal arm portion, and second anchoring means provided in the distal arm portion between the first anchoring means and a joint between the distal arm portion and the proximal arm portion.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a holder or retractor for holding parts of an assembly separated from each other or close to each other during working operations carried out on the assembly, the holder comprising at least a wire body having a resilient hinge portion and at least two arms outwardly extending from the hinge portion, each arm comprising a distal arm portion, a proximal arm portion having at least a portion thereof extending angularly to the distal arm portion, first anchoring means provided at a distal end of the distal arm portion, and second anchoring means provided in the distal arm portion between the first anchoring means and a joint between the distal arm portion and the proximal arm portion.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the abovementioned holder wherein the at least one portion of the proximal arm portion extending angularly to the distal arm portion defines an intermediate arm portion and the second anchoring means are placed between the first anchoring means and a joint between the intermediate arm portion and the distal arm portion.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be better understood when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and description.